This work focuses primarily upon radionuclide techniques for evaluating ventricular performance. These will serve as a basis for evaluating acute myocardial infarction and following the condition in a chronic manner after discharge from the hospital. Studies have concentrated upon the quantitative first-pass radionuclide angiocardiogram technique using a computerized multicrystal camera. Studies have been performed sequentially at rest following acute myocardial infarction. Studies have been performed in patients with coronary artery disease in association with exercise and have demonstrated that patients with coronary artery disease have an altered ventricular reserve in response to exercise stress. The techniques for evaluating right ventricular performance have been validated and standardized. Application of this technique to acute myocardial infarction has demonstrated that approximately 50% of patients with inferior wall myocardial have depressed right ventricular performance. First-pass radionuclide angiocardiogram technique has been shown to be sensitive to a variety of interventions, including aminophylline and isoproterenol which augment ventricular performance, adriamycin which depresses ventricular performance, and propranolol which appears to have no affect upon ventricular performance in the resting state. Currently the first-pass technique is being compared to the alternative radionuclide technique for evaluating ventricular performance, mainly a multiple gated acquisition blood pool study. Initial work demonstrates a good correlation between these two techniques.